THE SLUTS OF SUTTON DRIVE Set for The Finborough Theatre, London, Now thru 9 July

As part of the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre's Summer Season, acclaimed US playwright Joshua Conkel makes his UK debut with the world premiere of the darkly comic The Sluts of Sutton Drive, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a strictly limited run of six Sunday and Monday performances from today, 24 June 2012 to the 9th of July.

Everybody wants a piece of Stephanie Schwartz. Her son’s demanding nuggets, her boyfriend wants her to wax and her best friend’s taking her to a stripping class. Now there’s a rapist on Sutton Drive, an obscene caller invading her home and a portal to hell beneath her sofa. How far must she go to make it all stop? And how far is too far?

Playwright Joshua Conkel is a playwright and blogger from rural Washington State. He is the author of MilkMilkLemonade, The Chalk Boy, Lonesome Winter (co-written with Megan Hill), I Wanna Destroy You and Sprawl as well as numerous short plays. MilkMilkLemonade was named Best Off-Broadway Show of 2009 by NY Press, and is consistently one of Playscripts' top three most-produced plays. It has become a cult hit in the USA, recently receiving its 25th production in only two years. In 2011, Joshua was nominated one of NEXT Magazine’s “Who’s Next”. His work has been developed by The Management, Soho Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Old Vic New Voices, Dixon Place, The Flea and more. He is a member of The Management, where he served as Artistic Director for six years, and of Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab, Sons of Tennessee, and The Dramatists Guild. He is currently finishing a graphic novel adaptation of The Chalk Boy for First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan, and editing his first short film, Power Lunch. He is an alumnus of Youngblood and the TS Eliot Old Vic New Voices US/UK Exchange. He holds a BFA in Theater from Cornish College of the Arts and lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Sluts of Sutton Drive is his UK debut.

Director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord is a theatre maker who directs, writes, devises and produces theatre and performance. Rebecca read Ancient History and Classics at Bristol University, specialising in ancient Greek drama. She trained as a Director at RADA and with Frantic Assembly, Complicite, Told by an Idiot and at The Young Vic. Her work has taken her from major international companies like Shakespeare’s Globe, Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to intimate found spaces in London and beyond. As a writer-director, her credits include Seeking Oblivion (BAC Scratch), Mrs Edna Way (Arch 468) and an original adaptation of Medea (Barons Court Theatre). Direction includes Mother Clap’s Molly House and The Flies (Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, for BSA), Romeo and Juliet (Teatro Technis), Five Eleven (King’s Head Theatre and Tour) and numerous new plays by emerging writers including Janice Okoh, Chad Armistead and Louise Monaghan at venues including Arch468 and Theatre503. She is Director of Theatre at Ovalhouse and Founding Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Arch 468.

The cast includes:

Georgia Buchanan trained at East 15 Acting School and Syracuse University. London theatre includes Execution of Justice (Southwark Playhouse) and Enter A Gentleman (National Portrait Gallery). US theatre includes Lysistrata, The Tamer Tamed (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ensemble Studio Theater), such small hands (Syracuse Stage), Love Letters, Translations, The Importance of Being Earnest (Keegan Theatre). Roles in training included lead roles in The Rose Tattoo, Woyzeck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Dream Play (Soho Theatre), And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (Tristan Bates Theatre) and Airswimming. Film includes Mindset andThe Hard Place.

Kelly Burke trained at RADA. Previous work at the Finborough includes Blue Surge (2011), Green, as part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2009) and In World, as part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2011). Other theatre includes Zelda for which she received an OffWestEnd Award nomination for Best Female Performer (New End Theatre), Avocado (King’s Head Theatre), Marie and Bruce (Wallace Shawn Festival at The Royal Court Theatre),
Inherit the Wind (Bug Theatre, Denver) and Agnes of God (Federal Theatre, Denver). Television includes Doctors. Radio includes The Big Sleep, The Little Sister, These Are the Times (BBC Radio 4).

Victor Gardener recently appeared at the Finborough Theatre in Fog (2012). Trained at Lee Strasberg Institute, New York, and Webber Douglas. Theatre includes Macbeth, Miss Julie, Of Mice and Men, The Caretaker, Blood Wedding, Arturo Ui, Road, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Recruiting Officer, Europeans (Mercury Theatre, Colchester), Doorman (Theatre Royal, Plymouth), The Way of the World (Wilton's Music Hall), Bollywood Jane (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Macbeth (Belfast Festival at Queen’s), Blocked (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Taming of the Shrew (US Tour), Enjoy (Theatre Royal Bath) and Biblical Tales (New End Theatre, Hampstead). Film includes Fortune's Smile, Postcode, The Fourth Dimension and Doctor Surreal. Television includes Law and Order UK, Casualty, The Crux, Doctors, The Bill, Emmerdale and Murphy's Law.

Eric Kofi Abrefa's theatre credits include Clybourne Park, The Merchant of Venice, Harper Regan, Philistines, The Cherry Orchard (all at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Khadij is 18 (Angle Theatre at Hackney Empire), Sexy Buffting (Metal Mouth Theatre) and Richard III (BBC Shakespeare Festival). Television includes Tati's Hotel, The Bill, Holby City, Psychic Road and Show. Film includes Tight Jeans.

Matt Steinberg trained at HB Studio, New York, and with the Shakespeare's Globe International Actors' Fellowship, London. London theatre includes A Respectable Wedding (Waterloo East Theatre). Canadian Theatre includes Bartholomew Fair, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, The Provok’d Wife (Stratford Festival), Art is a Cupboard (Sweat Company, Toronto), The Goat (Neptune Theatre, Halifax), Waiting (Soulpepper Theatre Company, Toronto). New York City theatre includes Richard III, Volpone, Arden of Faversham (Classic Stage Company), Donna Morelli (Ensemble Studio Theater), Loud (Threshold Theater Company), Have You Met My Brother?, King John (Doppelganger), King Lear, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens (York Shakespeare Company) and the New York Shakespeare Festival as part of The Public Theatre's Shakespeare Lab. Film and Television includes The Best Years, True Confessions of A Hollywood Starlet, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Green Door, Trojan Horse, Holy Cannoli and Dirty Work. Awards include the Tyrone Guthrie Award (Stratford Festival) and the Christopher Plummer Award (Shakespeare’s Globe Centre, Canada).

Producer Vicky Graham is an independent producer specialising in new writing in the US and the UK. She has produced on the fringe and at festivals in London, Edinburgh, Paris, Avignon, and Off-Broadway in New York. As Producer at Theatre503, she produced seven in-house productions (Wild Horses by Nimer Rashed, Epic by Matt Hartley, Breed by Lou Ramsden, The Charming Man by Gabriel Bisset-Smith, The Biting Point by ShaRon Clark, Sold by Suzie Miller and Carrot by Ben Ockrent), countless co-productions and events. Last year, Vicky was selected to participate in the Old Vic New Voices TS Eliot US/UK Exchange. Vicky is a recipient of the Stage One Bursary for New Producers. The Sluts of Sutton Drive is her first production under the banner of Vicky Graham Productions. Forthcoming projects include Strong Arm (Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season).

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652. www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sundays and Mondays, 24, 25 June, 1, 2, 8 and 9 July 2012
Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tickets £14, £10 concessions.

More details at http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/productions.php

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